A Discussion of Goshute Storyteller Maud Moon With Dr. Marianna Di Paolo and Elwood Mose
Maud Moon Biography
Maud Moon, whose maiden name was Maud McGill, was born at Chin Creek, Nevada in 1884. Her mother was from the Dolly Varden, a low mountain range about 40 miles to the north of the present-day Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation. Her father was from Waatoya, just west of the Reservation. She did not know her maternal grandparents but her paternal grandparents were from the "other side,” west of Waatoya. Her husband was from Skull Valley, Utah.
As a child her household consisted of her mother, father, and some brothers and sisters. Her peer group was made up of her siblings, cousins (mother's brother's children), plus a few ranchers’ children. She never learned English, in spite of the fact that she played with white children. While in her teens, her father died, and she, her mother, and single living sister moved to Goshute, where she lived out the rest of her life.
She met her future husband at a fandango held near Goshute. The two of them settled at Goshute but made frequent visits to Skull Valley. She also made frequent visits to Ft. Hall Reservation in Idaho to visit her married granddaughter and to attend the Sun Dance.
Mrs. Moon was a well-known, prolific storyteller of traditional stories, characterized by their lyrical quality, rich dialogue, and complex vocabulary. A number of the narratives are ethnographic in nature and reflect her deep understanding of traditional lifestyle, including foraging practices, healthy living, life as a traditional Goshute woman, and her thoughtful reflections on how European contact had negatively affected her people. Her stories attracted the attention of scholars and, beginning in 1967, Professor Wick R. Miller at the University of Utah audio-recorded 42 narratives from Mrs. Moon, which now form a large part of the Wick R. Miller Collection (WRMC). The narratives range from about 2 minutes to about 90 minutes in length.
Prof. Miller’s first interviews with Mrs. Moon were done through the use of an interpreter. His notes explain that she uses lexical and grammatical items from the Fort Hall and Skull Valley dialects of Shoshoni, as well as from her native dialect. Moon’s language, Goshute (aka Gosiute), is a dialect of Shoshoni, a language spoken over a 1200 m. range from its southernmost point near Death Valley, California to Wind River, Wyoming. Shoshoni is a Central Numic language, the northernmost branch of Uto-Aztecan languages.
Note: This biographical information is based on Wick R. Miller’s materials, currently held by the Shoshoni Language Project at the University of Utah. In those materials, her name is usually spelled “Maude”.
Di Paolo and Mose Interview - Discussion of Shoshoni Language Storytelling
Elwood Mose and Marianna Di Paolo Biographies
Dr. Marianna Di Paolo is an Emeritus Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, and a Research Associate at the National Museum of Natural History (the Smithsonian). She received a B.A. in Spanish with honors at the University of Colorado Boulder, and trained as a teacher of Spanish and English as a Second Language. Her Ph.D. is in Linguistics from The University of Texas at Austin. She was the founding Chair of the University of Utah’s Department of Linguistics, and is currently an Emeritus in that department. She is the Director of the Shoshoni Language Project at the University of Utah, a project that begin in collaboration with Mauricio J. Mixco.
As a sociolinguist her research focuses on sociophonetics; variation and change in Western American English and Shoshoni; and on the documentation and revitalization of the Shoshoni language. Her recent publications include “The Peripatetic History of ME *ɛ:” (with A. Faber & C.T. Best, 2010), Sociophonetics: a Student’s Guide (co-edited with M. Yaeger-Dror, 2011 Routledge), and Languages and Dialects in the U.S.: Focus on Diversity and Linguistics (co-edited with A.K. Spears, 2014 Routledge). Awards for her scholarly contributions include the Community Member Award from the Utah State Bar Association in recognition of her service on the Advisory Committee on Model Jury Instructions. The Shoshoni Language Project, funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Barrick Gold corporation, has been awarded the National Indian Education Association’s William G. Demmert Cultural Freedom Award.
Elwood Mose of the South Fork Te-Moak Indian Reservation comes from a traditional family and attended public schools and university. Mose's career has included corporate and non-profit organization work, state government service for two governors, and work as an Indian public interest lobbyist in state and national legislatures. He has served on the tribal council and as chairman of his Tribe. His Shoshoni language ability has involved him in both movie and stage productions and some television. He has been a part of the Shoshoni Language Project at the University of Utah for eight years and is now contributing to a translating and archival project headed by emeritus Associate Professor Marianna Di Paolo.
Larry Cesspooch: Ute Storyteller
Larry Cesspooch Biography
Larry Cesspooch is a contemporary storyteller who incorporates film, music, traditional artifacts, and animation into his stories. He grew up on the Uintah & Ouray Ute Reservation in Northeastern Utah. Cesspooch, in Ute, means “white belly,” the first name of Larry Cesspooch’s great-grandfather, who was born with a white birthmark on his stomach. Larry Cesspooch’s own first name in Ute is Eyee-Pooch, meaning “young man.”
Cesspooch served in the U.S. Navy as a radioman in Vietnam, Hawaii, and Texas. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts for his AA, and the Anthropology Film Center for his BA, both in Santa Fe, N.M. on both G.I. Bill and tribal scholarships. After returning home from his military service in 1979, Cesspooch created the "Ute Tribe Audio-Visual," one of the first tribal production groups in the United States, which has produced over 600 films on Ute culture, language, and history for the Utes, including “The Ute Bear Dance Story,” which screened at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival. Cesspooch also worked as an editor for the Ute Bulletin tribal newspaper, and as the Ute Tribe public relations specialist.
In 2002, Cesspooch established his own production studio, "Through Native Eyes Productions." He remains one of the Ute spiritual leaders, frequently delivering talks about spirituality, and specific Ute cultural customs. He currently maintains one of the sweat lodges on the Ute Reservation, and conducts both spiritual blessings and Native wedding ceremonies.
Cesspooch Storytelling Links